California Extends Abortion by Non-Physicians

Sacramento, Calif.: The California Senate voted Thursday, August 30, to pass a bill allowing non-physicians to perform aspiration abortions. Senate Bill 623, introduced by Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego) extends a program run by the University of California, San Francisco, in which nurse practitioners, midwives and physicians assistants are trained to perform abortions.

Ms. Kehoe claimed that the bill was necessary to fill gaps in the availability of abortion caused by the shortage of doctors in parts of the State. The bill went through three attempts before passage. Originally, SB 623 was a measure regulating boat paint. Ms. Kehoe “gutted and amended” the bill after its introduction, which raised some protest from other members of the Senate. This spring, a Senate committee rejected an attempt to pass a broader bill allowing non-physicians to perform abortions. In the end, a narrower version of the bill was passed. Rather than opening abortion to non-physicians generally, the bill focuses on extending a U.C. San Francisco program training physicians assistants and others to perform first trimester abortions.

For months Life Legal Defense Foundation has been tracking down information on the U.C. San Francisco program. “There have been numerous attempts to resist records requests, leaving us wondering what they have to hide,” states Katie Short, Legal Director of LLDF. “It is important for Californians to find out what is being done in this training program – who are the abortionists conducting the training? How many women are being injured by these non-physician abortionists?”

LLDF will continue to seek information on this program, and will seek expose what is going on through this expanded assault on women and the unborn.